Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has put modest pressure on the Palestinian Authority to curb violence in order to avoid giving Israel an excuse to ignore past agreements with the Palestinians.

Mr Mubarak said he hoped that the Palestinians' contacts with the Americans and with the Israelis could stop bloodshed.

"I also hope that the Palestinian Authority tries its best to stop violence so that it will not give Israel an excuse not to implement the agreements," he said.

Mubarak says Arafat is still the man to deal with

A BBC correspondent in Cairo, Heba Saleh, says the remark represents a shift in emphasis for the Egyptian president.

Previously Mr Mubarak had stressed that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat could not ensure an end to attacks against Israel without an end to Israeli occupation, arguing that some of the violence stemmed from Palestinian despair.